Algebraic Specification Techniques And Tools For Software Development The Act Approach

The intention of this book is to show how algebraic specification methods can be used for software development to support reliability, modifiability and reusability. These methods are introduced by parameterized and module specifications through practical examples and case studies using algebraic specification languages and tools developed at TU Berlin.

The intention of this book is to show how algebraic specification methods can be used for software development to support reliability, modifiability and reusability. These methods are introduced by parameterized and module specifications through practical examples and case studies using algebraic specification languages and tools developed at TU Berlin.

The goal of the AMAST conferences is to foster algebraic methodology as a foundation for software technology, and to show that this can lead to practical mathematical alternatives to the ad-hoc approaches commonly used in software engineering and development. The first two AMAST conferences, held in May 1989 and May 1991 at the University of Iowa, were well received and encouraged the regular organization of further AMAST conferences on a biennial schedule. The third Conference on Algebraic Methodology and Software Technology was held in the campus of the University of Twente, The Netherlands, during the first week of Summer 1993. Nearly a hundred people from all continents attended the conference. The largest interest received by the AMAST conference among the professionals extended to include the administration organizations as well. AMAST'93 was opened by the Rector of the University of Twente, followed by the Local Chairman. Their opening addresses open this proceedings, too. The proceedings contains 8 invited papers and 32 selected communica tions. The selection was very strict, for 121 submissions were received.

This book constitutes the final report of the work carried out in the project KORSO ("Korrekte Software") funded by the German Federal Ministry for Research and Technology. KORSO is an evolutionary, prototype-oriented project aimed at improving the theoretical foundations of quality-driven software engineering and at implementing known techniques for applications of practical relevance. The 21 strictly refereed papers presented are organized in five sections on methods for correctness, languages, development systems and logical frameworks, tools, and case studies. In addition, the preface and introductory paper give valuable background information and a concise state-of-the-art overview.

"I prefer to view formal methods as tools. the use of which might be helpful." E. W. Dijkstra Algebraic specifications are about to be accepted by industry. Many projects in which algebraic specifications have been used as a design tool have been carried out. What prevents algebraic specifications from breaking through is the absence of introductory descriptions and tools supporting the construction of algebraic specifications. On the one hand. interest from industry will stimulate people to make introductions and tools. whereas on the other hand the existence of introductions and tools will stimulate industry to use algebraic specifications. This book should be seen as a contribution towards creating this virtuous circle. The book will be of interest to software designers and programmers. It can also be used as material for an introductory course on algebraic specifications and software engineering at undergraduate or graduate level. Nowadays. there is general agreement that in large software projects appropriate specifications are a must in order to obtain quality software. Informal specifications alone are certainly not appropriate because they are incomplete. inconsistent. inaccurate and ambiguous and they rapidly become bulky and therefore useless. The only way to overcome this problem is to use formal specifications. An important remark here is that a specification formalism (language) alone is not sufficient. What is also needed is a design method to write specifications in that formalism.

Spine title: WADT '97.

Content Description #Includes bibliographical references and index.

Language prototyping provides a means to generate language implementations automatically from high-level language definitions. This volume presents an algebraic specification approach to language prototyping, and is centered around the ASF+SDF formalism and Meta-Environment. The volume is an integrated collection of articles covering a number of case studies, and includes several chapters proposing new techniques for deriving advanced language implementations. The accompanying software is freely available.

By presenting state-of-the-art research results on various aspects of formal and visual modeling of software and systems, this book commemorates the 60th birthday of Hartmut Ehrig. The 24 invited reviewed papers are written by students and collaborators of Hartmut Ehrig who are established researchers in their fields. Reflecting the scientific interest and work of Hartmut Ehrig, the papers fall into three main parts on graph transformation, algebraic specification and logic, and formal and visual modeling.

The scientific developments at the end of the past millennium were dominated by the huge increase and diversity of disciplines with the common label "computer science". The theoretical foundations of such disciplines have become known as theoretical computer science. This book highlights some key issues of theoretical computer science as they seem to us now, at the beginning of the new millennium. The text is based on columns and tutorials published in the Bulletin of the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science in the period 1995 -- 2000. The columnists themselves selected the material they wanted for the book, and the editors had a chance to update their work. Indeed, much of the material presented here appears in a form quite different from the original. Since the presentation of most of the articles is reader-friendly and does not presuppose much knowledge of the area, the book constitutes suitable supplementary reading material for various courses in computer science.